Dota 2 and esports brand OG Esports and UK esports organisation LDN UTD have today announced the beginning of a strategic partnership.
This will see the current LDN UTD Valorant team rebranded to OG LDN UTD, who will be playing in the upcoming VCT Challengers Stage from May 13th 2022.
All players will be wearing co-branded OG LDN UTD jerseys to represent the new partnership.
Both organisations will provide ‘world class support, including regular high end bootcamps and other performance services to the players, whilst also focus on community growth and joint events, with some taking place at LDN UTD’s Centre Of Excellence in Camden Town, London’. LDN UTD already runs Valorant community days and these will now be supported by OG.
LDN UTD has a partnership with the Strive Group to run esports and digital skills traineeship courses for young people at the Centre of Excellence and beyond.
The Valorant roster will continue to be comprised of the existing LDN UTD roster:
- Ričardas ‘Boo’ Lukaševičius (IGL)
- Lukas ‘feqew’ Petrauskas (Main Duelist)
- Tomas ‘Destrian’ Linikas (Initiator)
- Michał ‘MOLSI’ Łącki (Initiator); who will be joined by
- Tautvydas ‘hype’ Paldavicius (Sentinel) on transfer from Alliance
Tommaso ‘joYnt’ Gavioli will continue in his role as coach and will be joined by British OG analyst Tyler ‘Bambino’ Jay.
Day to day operations will continue to be run by LDN UTD, and in particular head of esports Ali ‘Rezi’ Rashid, alongside OG’s head of esports, Mike Schwartz.
JMR Luna, CEO of OG Esports, said: “Very rarely do we have a chance to work with another value driven company and in LDN UTD we have found a perfect match. We love their community driven initiatives and what they are building, so when we all sat down together and spoke, we became very excited about this adventure together.
“We think they have done a very good job building and nurturing this project and we hope we can contribute to its success this new season.”
“Very rarely do we have a chance to work with another value driven company and in LDN UTD we have found a perfect match. We love their community driven initiatives and what they are building, so when we all sat down together and spoke, we became very excited about this adventure together.”
JMR Luna, OG Esports
OG Esports are also known as Red Bull OG due to their partnership with Red Bull, however this Valorant team is known as OG LDN UTD.
Oliver Weingarten, founder and CEO at LDN UTD, added: “OG’s reputation in esports is well earned and highly respected, and through this unique partnership we will be able to continue to support our existing Valorant team and give them the best chance of pursuing success and fulfilling their ambition. We look forward to working closely with OG to grow the community and host engaging, joint events with them in London that further our ethos.”
Connor Ball, co-owner of LDN UTD, commented: “I’m so excited for LDN UTD to work with an organisation that aligns with our values, to enhance our Valorant competitiveness, and I’ve no doubt alongside Johan, Seb, JMR and the OG team we are going to create some great content that the community will love.”
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
